Premier League club Liverpool is reportedly in advanced talks with Nike over a new long-term kit deal that, if signed, would be a new league record.
According to a report from ESPN, Nike is prepared to pay more than £75m (€87m/$98m) per year to take over from New Balance as kit supplier at Anfield.
The deal would eclipse Manchester United’s current kit partnership with German brand adidas, which is the biggest Premier League kit deal to date at £75m per year.
Liverpool’s current deal with New Balance is worth £25m per year, and is set to expire at the end of the 2019-20 season.
Sources close to the negotiations told ESPN that New Balance has a “matching clause” in the contract, which allows it to retain and extend the deal by equalling any rival offer.
Liverpool has also held talks with German rivals Puma and adidas, but Nike appears committed to the Merseyside club, given the current strength of the Liverpool brand and the club’s continued success both on and off the pitch.
At present, Nike’s £100m-a-year deal with Barcelona is the biggest kit deal on the planet, followed by adidas’s £98m-a-year deal with Real Madrid. Both deals are set to run for 10 years, from 2018 and 2015 respectively.
Liverpool cannot match the likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid, but market research commissioned by managing director Billy Hogan has found the club could command a higher kit price than the rest of the Premier League’s top six.
SportBusiness Sponsorship understands that Liverpool is aiming to raise between £100m and £120m from its four principal partners – namely its technical sponsor, main shirt sponsor, sleeve sponsor and training kit sponsor – but the club is still significantly short of this target at present.
In February this year, Liverpool announced record-breaking pre-tax profits of £125m for the 2017-18 season, driven by the club’s successful run to the Champions League final and a surge in partnership sales.
Liverpool inked eight new partnerships and renewed four existing partnerships in the 2017-18 financial year, boosting its commercial revenue by £17m to £154m.